The period from the Month of May until the end of June 2017 marks a critical period at MBA North. This is when the Construction Health & Safety (CHS) Department conducts its Regional Health & Safety Competition Audits.

CHS manager Gerhard Roets and his team of safety officers are hard at work auditing the sites that members of both Master Builders Association and Federated Employers Mutual Assurance Company (RF) (PTY) LTD (FEM) have entered into the annual competition. This is done free of charge for members.

Its two organisations continue to encourage more member companies of all sizes to enter the competition and allow the Master Builders Association North CHS Department to audit them and ensure their compliance to the CHS regulations.

Presently the department has completed 50% of its audits and recently conducted was the audit of a site competing in the R500-million plus category for the Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) Tower being built on Bridal Veil Street, Waterfall by MBA North member WBHO.

The project is 65% complete and boasts the fastest elevators in South Africa that travel at 6 metres per second.

The competition has seen the team travel all over the North Provinces, (Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West and Gauteng) to assess and ensure the health and safety of employees and sites around the country.

Current statistics produced by FEM reveal the need to improve on Safety Compliance at all levels of incident or accident causes. ‘Falling from Heights’ – ladders, scaffolds, roofs etc. has been identified as most concerning as these fatalities account for 25% of the total statistics.

An additional area requiring focus is the health of workers on site, which involves risk factors around hazardous substances and or the environment.

These are some of the sites the department will audit this week, 12-16 June:

The MBA North Construction Health & Safety Department believes that the Regional Safety Competition critically assists the industry in upholding best practise and assuring workers on site of their health & safety as they do the important work of building South Africa.